Pallets of the wood type have found extensive use in commerce for transporting boxed, crated, or bagged loads from one position to another. The pallets being lifted and dropped from place to place are subjected to rough handling by the lift truck and otherwise. The damage evidences itself in cracked or destroyed baseboards, deckboards or the stringers. It has been found however, that in almost every instance several of the boards may be salvaged and in certain instances stringers may be salvaged.
Wood pallets are generally made of oak or a similar hardwood. In view of the wood aging process and used pallet wood is more valuable than the non-used wood--seasoned versus green lumber. Accordingly, it has been found to be profitable to disassemble the damaged wood pallets, salvage the undamaged lumber, and to reconstruct the pallet from the used lumber. The resulting wood pallet is as good or perhaps better than a newly constructed pallet. However the disassembling has heretofore been primarily by hand which in turn is laborous, time consuming, and costly.